Of all the things that we can learn from the life of Jesus, perhaps the most powerful lessons are His lessons on prayer; more specifically, His lessons on how to pray. In Luke 11, the disciples ask Jesus how to pray and He gives them the Lord’s prayer. Later, in John 17, Jesus gives an even more practical example of prayer during the Last Supper. After explaining what was to come, Jesus looked towards heaven and began to pray out loud.
Very soon into the prayer, Jesus said something that struck me as odd. In John 17:4, Jesus tells the Father, “I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do.” Wait a minute! How had Jesus finished the work God gave Him to do? At this point, Jesus hadn’t been beaten with many stripes, crowned with thorns, nailed to the cross, pierced with a sword, or risen from the grave. How had He possible finished His work?
At first, I thought that Jesus must have just been speaking prophetically. After all, as God Himself, Jesus knew how the story would end. He knew that He would fulfill prophesy and make a way for our salvation. He was just speaking the truth as it would unfold in the future.
However, interestingly enough, as Jesus continues His prayer, He doesn’t speak the same way about the disciples. In John 17:15, Jesus prays, “My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one.” Please note that Jesus doesn’t thank God for having already protected His disciples. Instead, He is asking God to do so; presumably, now and in the future. The same is true when Jesus prays for the wider circle of believers. ”May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.” (John 17:21). Once again, this is a prayer for believers to convert others in the future.
So why does Jesus prayer about Himself in the past tense, but about others in the future tense? After all, Jesus knew that His disciples would eventually go out and spread the gospel to the ends of the earth. Why not just say so in His prayers? I think the answer to that question is answered by the fact that Jesus was praying for the benefit of His disciples. He was trying to show them and us (people who are NOT all-knowing) how to pray.
In doing so, He demonstrates two different types of prayers: (1) man prayers and (2) god prayers. By “man prayers,” I mean the type of prayers in which we are praying for God to give us strength to do our part. And by “god prayers,” I mean the type of prayers in which we are asking for God’s supernatural strength to accomplish what we can’t do on our own.
For man prayers, Jesus seems to indicate that we should pray for them in the past tense as He did by saying that His work was finished. In essence, Jesus said, “I just want to thank you in advance for giving me the strength to face this horrific death so that I can bring you glory.” This might not seem like much of a distinction but I think it can make a HUGE difference in the life of a believer.
For example, let’s just suppose that Jesus had publicly prayed something like, “If it’s in your will, Lord, give me the strength to grow through this ordeal.” And then, two hours later, Jesus finds Himself in the Garden of Gethsemane literally sweating blood. He knows that He has the power to stop his execution, but if He does, He will destroy the fulfillment of prophesy and ruin the plan for man’s salvation. Also, He will prove Himself and God to be liars. After all, just a few hours earlier, He had publicly declared that had finished his work. How could Jesus go back to His disciples and say, “Well, you know, guys, when I was talking about finishing my work, I really didn’t mean that it was ‘finished finished’”?
In essence, by praying in the past tense, God put one more obstacle in the way of retreat. There was one more reason for Him to finish His mission. And while Jesus didn’t necessarily need the “backup,” you and I do. When we are tempted to give up on God’s plan for our lives, we need all of the reasons we can get to “finish our course.” And not wanting yourself (or worse, God) to lose face can be just the reason you need to get you over the finish line.
This motivation certainly got me over the finish line with regards to my health last year. I was able to quit smoking after being a literal slave to nicotine for almost two decades. Why? Was it because I finally learned that it would kill me? Of course not. The label of every pack I ever bought read something like: “Cancer causes cancer, heart disease, lung disease and you are an idiot for smoking this!” I knew the risks and I was willing to bear them. This is despite the fact that I was risking not only my future, but the future of my family and all of those God has called me to lead home.
However, while I was willing to risk almost everything for nicotine, what I was not willing to risk was losing face with others. Let me explain.
Being the loud mouth that I am, I told everyone of my decision to quit smoking on December 31, 2007. I told my family. I told my friends. I told my doctor. And I even told my audiences. And I kept telling them all through January and February and even after. As a result, I put myself on the spot. How was I going to go back to, say, my clients, and say, “You can’t trust me as far as you can throw me with regards to keeping my promises, but I want you to give me a big check now and I promise to show up at your event in nine months”? In short, by having a big mouth, I put my credibility on the line as well as my health. And interestingly, that was just enough to tip the scales in my favor and allow me to break free of that bondage FOREVER.
I utilized the same strategy with regards to my weight loss, except that I took it to the next level by adding a “dash” of God to the recipe. I know I need to explain that one, so bear with me. Late last summer, the Lord began nudging me to lose the extra 50 pounds I had been carrying around. He explained that, for the distance He wanted to take me, I needed to travel light. And, once again, here is where insanity has its perks. Not only did I believe Him, but I opened my big mouth and told everyone that I was going to lose 50 pounds in the next six months. Not only that, but when the situation was right (and sometimes, when it wasn’t right), I would tell people that God told me to lose the weight.
As you might remember, I had a hectic travel schedule last fall (thank God). Very often, I would wake up early to give an all-day seminar. Afterwards, I would hop on a plane to my next city and finally arrive at the hotel; often at 10 or 11 o’clock at night. As you can imagine, the very last thing I wanted to do was to spend the next hour in the hotel gym. I would have preferred to hop in bed with a tray of nachos, a cheesecake and a Diet Coke from room service and doze off to SportsCenter. Yet, I couldn’t do that because, earlier that day, I had added 200 people to the number of people who were expecting to see a skinny Sean at next year’s event. Even worse, I had told a few select people that I was acting on God’s orders. So for those people, not only would I be a weak man, but a weak Christian. I could just imagine one of them saying, “Well, if God can’t depend on him, then I know our company can’t!” In essence, I lost the weight not so much because I am strong and self-disciplined, but because I had declared “It is finished” and I had no choice but to follow through.
What do you need to be “finished” in your life? It is a bad habit, like smoking? Is it a pattern of behavior that leads to poor results, like being quick-tempered or a procrastinator? Whatever it is, it’s time to put on your WWJD bracelet and follow in the footsteps of the master. In private prayer and in public conversations, declare that “It is finished!” It will give a boldness, power, and in my case, a sexiness, that passes all human understanding.
Can I get an amen?
